aurik

Like many Japanese/Okinawan organizations, we have 10 kyu grades and 10 dan grades. As a general rule, each Uechi-Ryu organization is headed by a 9th or 10th degree (including ours). I've had the privilege to train with the heads of two different organizations, ours (James Thompson, judan) and Konan Kai (Itokazu Seiki, kudan). Both of those seminars were extremely enlightening, and I only remember a small fraction of the material they taught.

As a Uechi stylist, we do train in nukite from our very first class. Sanchin is our fundamental kata, and we train it with the nukite strike. We are expected to maintain isometric tension in the hands during the kata, most especially at the kime segment of a strike. At higher kyu ranks, your instructor will apply pressure to your fingertips to ensure that your hands are sufficiently strong. Almost every one of our kata includes nukite strikes, but they are selective in their targeting. In sanchin we target the shoulder joint, obliques, and clavicle. In kanshu, we target the oblique muscles, and in seichin/seisan we target the groin and throat with our nukite. These are not intended to be used in sparring situations or combat against a prepared attacker, but more in street self-defense. By the time one of us gets to senior kyu ranks, we've trained the nukite sufficient that I'd be pretty confident that if I needed to use a nukite in a self-defense situation that I'd know where to hit someone to do far more damage to him than me. This also applies to several of our other weapons, such as the boshiken (think of a palm heel strike with the thumb tucked in, where the thumb is the striking point), and the shoken (one-knuckle punch). I'm not quite there with the tsumasaki geri (toe kick) -- I need several more years of conditioning for that one.

Since shutting down from the Coronavirus, our CI has changed things up quite a bit, offering different learning experiences for different students. He started out with purely virtual learning (via zoom), and some outdoor classes. Once we had guidance to open in-person learning, he added that to the mix. Right now, I'll take whatever training I can get. I prefer learning in the dojo, mainly because of the flooring. However, I'm happy to learn whatever and wherever our sensei teaches us. As a fellow Uechi stylist, I have to admit that I'm surprised your instructor is teaching you Kanshu so early. The two katas are similar enough that if you don't have a very solid grasp of Kanshiwa, you'll start getting the two katas messed up. One thing I'd recommend you talk to your instructor about (if you haven't already) is how to do forearm and shin conditioning on your own. Since we can't generally do partner drills during Coronavirus, it's best that you get some of that in on your own. Our school generally expects that by the time you reach brown belt (2 years or so in), your arms and shins are conditioned enough to tolerate reasonably heavy contact, and the drills at brown/black belt pretty much require it. Good luck on your journey!!

Hey Bulldawg! It's great to see another Uechi stylist here. Welcome to the forum!

There are no less than a dozen different Uechi-Ryu organizations worldwide. My understanding is the first major split happened when Kanbun Uechi died (at the time, it was known as Pangai-Noon Kung-Fu). Then after his son, Kanei Uechi died, another split occurred. Each organization is generally run by a 9th degree or 10th degree, and they all have slightly different ways of doing things. All Uechi-Ryu organizations usually teach the same 3 original kata, Sanchin, Seisan, and Sanseiryu. Most also teach the 5 kata derived from the originals, Kanshiwa, Kanshu, Seichin, Seiryu, and Kanchin. However at least one organization teaches Kanshu by its original name, "Daini Seisan" aka "second seisan" or "half seisan". They also teach the same junbi undo (warmup exercises) and hojo undo (accessory exercises). The major place organizations differ is in the bunkai. Most organizations have defined bunkai for Kanshiwa and Seisan, as these were formalized by Kanmei Uechi. However, not all organizations have formal bunkai for the bridging katas. For example, when I studied with another organization last summer, they didn't have a formal bunkai for Kanshu. Also, while the general pattern for each kata may be the same across organizations, some of the specifics differ, and many of these specifics act as a "signature" to identify which lineage a student has learned from. I've had the privilege to train with several different high-ranking instructors from different organizations -- I've not yet experienced a "our way is right and yours is wrong". Of course, I've always gone into the situations with the understanding that other organizations/instructors will teach things slightly differently. Each of these situations I've taken as an opportunity to learn new ways of doing things and incorporate them into my own karate.

Congratulations Noah! I hope you and Stephanie share many happy years together!

In the craziness that is COVID, our dojo got some good news. Our sensei has been looking to move to a larger space, because he's essentially outgrown his current space. The good news is that a nearby multi-use facility (combination physical therapy / yoga studio / fitness center) recently became available, and our CI was able to secure a 5 year lease at essentially the same rates that he's paying now. The new space has 2 floors, the lower floor is ~3000sf and the upper floor is ~1500 sf. This compares to 1700sf at his old space. He started up classes in the new dojo this week, and while there are many adjustments to be made (for example, he ordered a set of zebra mats for the downstairs space that he needs to get installed & set up), it was a lot of fun working out at the new place. Last night we had a very small class - me, a nidan, two green belts and one yellow belt. He started me out working dan kumite with the nidan (he's one of my favorite partners to work with), and then after we did that for awhile he had me work/teach the kicking exercise to the yellow/green belts. The green belts are already pretty comfortable with this, but the yellow belt is still learning the blocking part of this exercise. After that he had me work my rank kata (seichin), and he gave me a few pointers to work on. He wants me to stay slightly longer in the low stances following the elbow strike, there is one sequence he wants me to do in a rat-tat-tat sequence (fast, but still distinct), and he also had a couple corrections to my crane block/sukui-uke sequence. He also mentioned that he wants me to know these things, because with where I am, I'll be doing a lot of practice on this on my own. After that, I focused on those three sequences and worked them. The last part of the night was kata. A lot of kata. He started us with two times through kanshiwa, then twice through kanshu and twice through seichin. I got to rest a bit while our nidan worked through seisan, seiryu, and kanchin. He then had us face different directions and practice our kata. Normally in the old dojo this would really mess with us, but since this is a new space, it really didn't phase me much. However at the end, he had us do mirror-image kata. I did pretty well with kanshiwa, reasonably well on kanshu, but when we got to seichin I completely fell apart after the second turn. Overall it was a really good workout, and I left feeling like I'm making a lot of progress to my next goal.

Or school does junior belts, which are denoted by a white stripe through the center of the belt. Kids from 4-6 year olds do the "junior" curriculum working from white belt through junior 3rd kyu (brown belt). When a kid ages out from the junior program, they tend to work their way through the adult curriculum faster. The junior curriculum teaches the requirements for (adult) 9th kyu in a much more easy-to-digest format. By the time a student has earned their junior brown belt, they've learned all of the requirements for (adult) 9th kyu, along with bits of the requirements for (adult) 6th kyu. We do also have junior black belts - they have the same time-in-rank and technical requirements, but a student can test for shodan-sho (junior black belt) at 11 or so. It's also not uncommon for a student to test for nidan-sho and (adult) shodan at the same time. It has been our CI's experience that most of the students who earn their junior brown belt continue on to earn their black belts.

One other thing that I haven't yet seen mentioned here is "flexibility". Not physical flexibility, but flexibility in teaching methods. Not every student will necessarily learn best from the same methods. Have more than one way to present the material, because different presentations will resonate with different students. What is also helpful is the flexibility to present material differently for students at different stages in their MA journey. For example, one of our fundamental techniques is the wa-uke (aka watari-uke, aka circular block). As a novice student (white/yellow belt), the student is expected to demonstrate it as a simple funnel that begins straight down in front of them and then rotates through 270'ish degrees to the ending position. Somewhere around green/brown belt, the student learns that if you leave your arm loose through most of the movement and let the shoulder *snap* it into place, the block gets a LOT faster and more effective. Also, they learn that the fundamental wa-uke they perform in their beginner's kata can be abbreviated/modified to block different sections of the body. Finally at senior kyu/dan levels, the expectation is the student will start doing two-handed wa-ukes, where the off-hand will perform a small guide block while the blocking hand will perform the snapping circular block as before.

Our CI has modified the kyu requirements to eliminate the two-person drills, and he has added additional requirements to make up for their omission. For students who are testing for dan grades, he typically runs a 3 month test prep cycle. What he is doing now is assigning each student a partner to train with, getting a signed waiver from each student (or their parents), and allowing those designated partners to spar against each other and do 2-person drills against each other. This does put the brown belt students (sankyu & nikkyu) in a bit of a pickle, since sparring is required on their tests. What he is doing is teaching them material in advance (ie, seisan kata & bunkai) so that when requirements ease up enough that students can touch each other again, he'll be able to modify the time-in-grade requirements -- if a student spent extra time in sankyu or nikyu, then he can reduce the time-in-grade requirement from ikkyu->shodan. Now for students who are members of the same household, he allows them to do 2-person drills with each other (of course). So that does give them a bit of an advantage.

Thank you for the encouragement! I really didn't want to put it this way to Zach, because while he is halfway (rank-wise) to shodan, he still has at least 2-3 more years before he's eligible to test for shodan-sho (junior shodan), and he won't be able to test for full shodan for 5-6 years after that (due to minimum age requirements). I'm going to have to do what I can to keep him motivated as the time between gradings increase. As for me, I'm feeling that in many ways I'm halfway to shodan myself. I've now been training here for about 2 years, and I've probably got another 1.5-2 years before I'm eligible to test for shodan. I've now learned most of the material for shodan, except seisan kata and bunkai. Looking back, I can see/feel how my speed, power, and technique have improved, but unfortunately my CV conditioning has not. I really need to take the next 1.5 years to work on that so that doesn't hold me back. I'm finding you guys to be a big source of encouragement as I post each of my updates. Thank you all

It's been a little while since I've posted in here, so it's definitely time for an update. I'm currently working towards my brown belt, working on two difficult pieces of material. Our seichin kata has a couple of pretty difficult sequences in it that I'm working on the subtleties -- one is a reverse step followed by a complex hooking block (back hand does a small circular block under the chin, front hand does a low sweeping block, and front leg comes up in a crane block, ending in a cat stance). The second one is a back leg circular block, front leg sweeping block, front leg coming up to a crane block ending in a cat stance. I can get those sequences 3 out of 4 times now, but every so often I'll try to mash them together too quickly and my center of gravity will be too high and I'll be unbalanced through the sequence. The second part I'm working on is our dan kumite sequence. This is a more flowing two-person drill than we do for yellow belt or green belt ranks. I've been learning it in individual pieces, but the partner I've been working with (who just earned his 2nd degree) is used to doing it in one flowing drill. The good thing was Tuesday night I was able to run through it with him about 4 times and I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm getting pretty comfortable with the "attacker" side, partly because I can control the tempo. The "defender" side I'm struggling with because my partner controls the tempo. For example, the attacker side of #1 is "step in with a lunge punch, shuffle step back with a low block, shuffle step back in with another lunge punch, then do a 'hop and change your feet' with a gedan barai uke'". After which I reset my stance and move to the next one. That little pause gives my brain a chance to catch up (and me a chance to change my breath). Here's what our seichin kata looks like: and this is the dan kumite I'm referring to: Now for the REALLY BIG news. Today Zach tested for (and passed) his next rank! Our sensei ran the test during our normal class, but it wasn't a surprise (since he told all the parents ahead of time). Zach looked really good in his hojo undo and kata. He did struggle a bit with the spinning hook kick and spinning back kicks in our kicking drill, but our instructor expects students at that rank to struggle a bit with those. Here are the pics of Zach and his shiny new diploma As always I told him how super proud I am of him!

For me, the hardest part of being in a fight is the fear of getting hit/hurt (yeah, I'm a big guy, but still). One of the things we train in Uechi-Ryu is body conditioning. This has two effects for us -- it hardens the muscles and bones to absorb a hit, but more importantly it desensitizes the nervous system so that when you get hit, you're far less likely to freeze. Am I confident that I could win a fight against 3 knuckleheads? No. But I'm also confident that I won't panic and make them think I'm an easy target.

Wow, this was unexpected. Thanks everyone!

It depends greatly on your target, your style, and your degree of training/conditioning. For example, a closed-fist punch may seem natural, but for a relatively untrained student, it can also lead to various fractures (hand, wrist, etc). A good instructor should teach you the proper ways to use the various strikes to avoid injury (to yourself) and maximize effectiveness in a self-defense situation. Our style preaches specific targets for our various techniques, depending on the weapon you are using and angle you’re attacking from, and our CI can give us a good reason based on anatomy for each one. At the beginning of each class, we practice each of those supplementary exercises, so by the time you are approaching brown belt/shodan, you can target those spots almost instinctively. So again the short version is “it depends, but hopefully your CI is knowledgeable enough to teach you the what’s and whys” I will say that a closed-fist punch from someone who has trained on the makiwara for decades feels like a sledgehammer when it lands. Part of our training involves our CI striking us (in a controlled manner) to the gut with a closed fist while performing Sanchin kata. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that if he didn’t control it.

These vids are a bit dated, but Andre Tippett (All-Pro linebacker with the New England Patriots, and 6th dan Uechi-Ryu) is a big fan of the front leg sweep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5OH8uSt_x4. Nothing fancy but it works! I generally open with a mawashi-geri to the side, but once sparring starts back up again, I need to work on the front leg sweep.

Welcome to the forums, MAD Mike!

Our school is still operating with restrictions: - Our CI has set 6x6 squares on the dojo floor, with 6 feet between square boundaries. Our current procedures are that you wear your mask into the school and to your square, and then you can remove the mask once you get to your square. - We generally cannot do contact drills with a couple of exceptions. Members of the same household can do contact drills with each other. Also, we recently had a trio of black belts go through a testing cycle (including the 3 month intensive prep session). They were permitted to do contact drills among each other after signing "hold harmless" waivers. Our school recently got some good news though -- it looks like with the problems businesses are having right now, a nearby fitness studio is looking for someone to take over their lease. Our CI was able to negotiate a lease on the space (roughly twice what we currently have) for about the same rate he's paying now. It looks like we'll be moving into the new space sometime in October or so.

Tonight's workout: Uechi-Cardio: Warmups Basics (blocks, punches, kicks, etc) Hojo undo Sanchin x3 Bag work, working 2 and 3 punch combinations Then to end it all off, start with sanchin and do every kata you know nonstop. If our Sensei is still going, repeat. I made it through two full iterations of sanchin/kanshiwa/kanshu/seichin without stopping more than a couple of seconds after each to reposition. That was a great workout, and I'll need to remember that last part for at-home work.

Things have been settling into something resembling a "new normal" over the past month or two. Zach attends a Tuesday youth class, I attend a Tuesday adult class, and we attend a Saturday class together. Since Zach and I live in the same household, we can actually touch each other during 2-person drills. Since I'm now supposed to be learning the new "Dan kumite" for sankyu through shodan, it's really helpful for me to work with Zach, even if he doesn't have the same power, speed, or size as an adult. Since Zach is going to be at a birthday party (for the neighbor twins -- one of whom has been in his class for each of the past 3 years, alternating on and off) tomorrow, our Sensei asked me if we'd like to come to tonight's advanced class. In this class, we were the lowest ranked students there -- there was a sankyu, an ikkyu (starting on his test prep cycle), and 4 shodan-sho's (junior 1st degree). As part of the testing prep cycle (some will be testing in December, I think), our CI starts drilling the candidates on what will be on the test. For example, all of the supplementary exercises were done at random and in Japanese (only). During the hojo undo and sanchin, he made it a point to pick on the candidates' basics, and I made lots of mental notes on where our Sensei was offering corrections. For example, our style is considered a half-hard half-soft style, and one of our fundamental techniques is the circular block (sometimes called wa-uke). He talked to us how it's training us to block all the different "sections" of the body, and while in a kata, the wa-uke is done in a full (or 3/4) circle, in practice you'll tend to execute just the segment you need. He then showed us several examples that on the surface looked like very different blocks, but then showed us how they're all just sections of the wa-uke. Next, he asked the candidate where the wa-uke should be hard and where it should be soft -- the candidate couldn't answer, but I guessed (correctly) that it should be at the end, where you're making contact with your opponent and then grabbing and pulling him. He then showed how you can use sanchin stance along with the grab to effectively control/neutralize an opponent, while a weak or off-balance grab can potentially leave you more susceptible than your opponent. I've had this described to me before while warming up for a test by one of the other instructors (around hachikyu/shichikyu), but today hearing that again really sunk in. After class, we had a nice swim at our HOA pool (it's open with restrictions -- you have to reserve a slot in advance, etc), and since the swim was at the end of the day the lifeguard started setting up the lane ropes for the next morning's swim. Zach made me super proud by volunteering to help the lifeguard set up the lane ropes by swimming them across the pool. He struggled a bit, but he didn't give up! Tonight, when we went out for dinner, I asked Zach if he was paying attention to what our Sensei was telling the black belt candidates. He remembered a little bit of it, but not all of it. I then told him that when he hears our Sensei giving corrections to another student, especially one more advanced than you, that you should pay attention and see if that's something you can apply to your own karate. I told Zach that Sensei was correcting the candidates' basics, and he should try to remember what Sensei was telling the other students. I told him this was primarily because if you can make those corrections now and be aware of those things now, then you might not develop bad habits that need to be corrected when you're getting ready to test for black belt. He seemed to understand that, and I'm hoping that he can start paying better attention when our Sensei talks about these things. Over the last few weeks he's grown quite a bit mentally and emotionally, so I'm hoping this will sink in with him.

In WKF rules, throws are legal as long as you follow them up with a legal striking technique. In fact, if you do succeed in sweeping/throwing your opponent to the ground and scoring on them, it's worth 3 points, the same as a head-level kick. Of course, if you throw an opponent and injure him in the process, you will most likely be penalized.

Of course if you really want to hurt someone with a front kick, kick with the toe . Now if you haven't conditioned your toes for this, you'll probably end up with a broken toe...

As others have said, this is highly dependent upon the style, the organization, and the school. I've belonged to three different Okinawan/Japanese schools so far, and they've each had three different conventions for addressing black belt ranks: In my first school, 1st-4th degree black belts wore plain black belts, 5th-8th degrees wore red/white belts, and 9th/10th degrees wore red belts. (We had one 10th degree visit for a seminar once). We referred to the 1st-4th degrees by "sensei ", the 5th-8th degrees by "shihan ", and the 10th degree was our head of style, who we called "soke". In my second school, all black belt ranks wore a plain black belt except for formal occasions (test boards, seminars, etc), when the masters would wear red/white or red belts based upon rank. We referred to our CI as simply "Sensei", and all other black belts were "Mister ". In my current school (uechi ryu), 1st-5th degree black belts were a plain black belt, 6th degrees wear a belt with one gold stripe on each side, 7th/8th degrees wear two gold stripes, and 9th/10th degrees wear three stripes. Our CI is referred to as "Sensei", while we call the other black belts by their given names. To a certain degree things are informal, but we're always expect to show respect to everyone in the dojo, regardless of rank. Periodically we'll have high ranked (9th/10th degree) visitors, and we'll refer to them as "Master" so and so, or just "Sensei". As a general rule, if you go into a school and act in a respectful manner everyone there, especially those senior to you and the black belts, then you shouldn't have any issues, and you'll pick up on their conventions soon enough.

In Uechi Ryu, two of our katas have bunkai that were formalized by Kanei Uechi (the son of the founder, Kanbun Uechi). These two bunkai are pretty much universal across Uechi-Ryu organizations. These bunkai are for kanshiwa (the first rank kata we learn) and seisan (required for shodan). Our bunkai is done somewhat different from other styles' bunkai (or at least those I've seen). Our bunkai is a pretty formal demonstration. The defender will demonstrate a given technique as demonstrated in the kata, then he will show its application, and then he will demonstrate the technique in the kata again. In addition to the formal bunkai, our CI enjoys periodically working with us on some of the techniques from our katas. All of our hojo undo (accessory exercises) are taken directly from kata, and from time to time we'll practice using those exercises on an attacker. There are also a number of throws implicit in our katas, and from time to time he has us work those with a partner as well. Unfortunately with the whole COVID situation, we really can't do partner work except in certain circumstances (ie, if you're living in the same household, or we have two shodans preparing for their nidan test who are practicing regularly with each other).

Hello Joe, and welcome to the forum! Where in Texas are you, and what are you doing your graduate work in?